Weekly Report - 06 December 2018 (WR-18-48)

ECUADOR: Corruption charges topple vice president

When Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno carried out a cabinet reshuffle this week he had not anticipated reassigning the functions of the vice presidency. But this he did after Vice President María Alejandra Vicuña relinquished her position. Barely one year earlier, Vicuña had assumed the vice presidency after the previous incumbent Jorge Glas was imprisoned for accepting bribes from the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht. Vicuña, who had been critical of Glas, lost Moreno’s confidence after charges were levelled against her for corruption, albeit of a lesser order.